While Bob Rae confirmed Wednesday that he won't be running for the Liberal leadership, Kingston and the Islands MP Ted Hsu won’t be among those vying for the position next spring.

Just hours after Rae bowed out, Hsu confirmed he was not interested in leading the party.

“I know [Rae] was thinking very hard about it, talking to close advisors about helping him make this decision,” Hsu said. “I didn’t know the decision would come so soon, but that’s again his call and his political judgment that it was better to decide now,”

Rae, 63, stated earlier in the day that his decision is the best way he can serve his party. “I think [Rae] really wants to be the interim leader [until next spring],” Hsu said.

“That’s really important because I think the NDP suffered because they didn’t have a strong voice in the House of Commons during their leadership race. Bob is going to be the opposite.”

With Rae removing his name from contention, the Liberal party has 34 others MPs who can potentially run for the position.

For his part, Hsu, who is in his first term, said he’s still in the learning process.

“I realized I don’t even know all that’s involved with running for the leader. I’m still learning things every day, like how big the job is. It would be foolish for me to think about it,” he said, adding although everyone wants to be leader, he knows that the job is much bigger than he can imagine.

“Just from watching Bob Rae doing his job, I was like, wow, I didn’t know the leader has to do this—be on top of all these issues and have all these connections across the country. It’s a big job.”

The local MP said with Rae not running the race is more wide open for people to take advantage.

“It’s a very exciting time for the Liberal Party and I think Bob has done a great job and shown how the job should be done,” he said.

Although Hsu believes it’s still too early for him to name a potential leader of the party, he said he’d like to see more female candidates contend.

“I think Canadians are looking for a new, more refreshed Liberal party with fresh ideas. I’m sure that’s something that’ll come with the leadership race,” he said. “Parties always need to change and readjust, people come and leave and that’s what Canadians are looking for.”